Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
M ild wi nds whipped off the ocean, slapping at my cheeks as I rushed across the sand, the granules squishing between my toes and kicking up behind my heels. I hadn’t bothered to put on my boots when leaving the Rileys’ house. They weren’t important.
Not as important as seeing Dad.
Any other time when urgency didn’t lick through my veins, I would have stopped to appreciate the sun glowing on my skin. My eyes adjusted to the brightness after living in the dark for so many hours. I loved the sun, and its radiance rejuvenated my soul.
I hadn’t realized tears pooled in my eyes until one streamed down my cheek, landing on my lip. I tasted the saltiness.
Our house didn’t appear to have suffered any damage. All the important parts were intact—the roof, the siding, and the windows. There might be a few missing shingles scattered on the beach, along with overturned patio furniture that hadn’t been secured in time, but overall, the house had survived another storm.
My heart sank when I spotted the car parked in my driveway. Seeing the cops at your house never instilled a good feeling .
Fingers shaking, I fumbled with the front door. “Dad!” I called the second I thrust it open. “Dad!” I said again as I broke around the corner.
With frantic eyes, I searched the house until my gaze landed on Dad, and my shoulders sagged. He sat in his wheelchair beside Sadie at the table. Her fingers were laced with his as they spoke with the sheriff standing in our kitchen.
Every head in the room whirled at my barreling approach. I’d come to a skidding halt, my sand-dusted toes sliding over the smooth floors, something I’d done a million times. Living on the beach meant everything was perpetually covered in sand.
“Arie,” Dad sighed in relief, the lower half of his face covered in stubble, and his gray eyes, so like mine, widened. “Oh, thank God. You’re alive. I thought—” His voice broke off, choking on emotion.
I understood the feeling well, swiping at the tears falling more freely down my face. “I’m sorry, Dad,” I sobbed, moving into the kitchen and bypassing the sheriff to hug my father.
“Oh, Arie.” Sadie’s hands flew over her mouth in a gasp, only to be followed by a burst of tears gathering in her glistening cornflower-blue eyes.
Dad gave me a long squeeze before I moved to hug Sadie as well. She looked like she’d kill me if I didn’t. From the exhaustion on their faces, I knew I’d put them through hell.
“I’m sorry,” I said again, my voice hitching. Sadie’s lilac scent engulfed me nearly as tightly as her arms. She always smelled like a spring bouquet no matter what season.
“We’re just happy you're home,” she sniffled, patting my back.
Sheriff Carter cleared his throat.
Sadie and I broke apart. I stayed between my father and her, glancing at the sheriff, knowing the questions were about to start. I didn’t have anything to hide.
The radio on his shoulder made a series of beeps before an operator’s muffled voice came through. Sheriff Carter waited until she finished. “Arie, glad to see you’re unharmed. Would you mind telling us where you’ve been?” he asked, his slightly round belly lifting with his chest as he straightened, waiting for me to answer. “According to your father, you’ve been missing for two days. ”
Sheriff Carter and I have a history. We don’t exactly see eye to eye. My gaze narrowed slightly. “Am I in trouble, Sheriff?”
“Not unless you broke the law,” he retorted.
I snorted as unpleasant flashbacks of the accident leafed through my mind. “Since when is taking shelter from a hurricane a crime?”
“Is that what you did?” he asked.
“I went to return something next door right before the storm hit,” I began to explain. “Their security system activated when I was inside, seconds before the power went out, essentially trapping us. I left the moment I realized the power had been restored.”
The sheriff trusted me about as much as I did him. “Which neighbor? I’d like to corroborate your story.”
My word wasn’t good enough? I never understood why the sheriff never took a liking to me. Perhaps it was because he believed I was hiding something about the night of my father’s accident. “The Rileys.”
“The Rileys,” he echoed, suspicion growing in his eyes. “Are they even in residence this time of year?”
“Their son is. Cole,” I replied, wondering why the sheriff knew the Rileys’ vacation schedule.
“Do you have a relationship with Cole?” Sheriff Carter continued to grill me with questions.
My snort might have been exaggerated. “No. Definitely not. We barely know each other.”
Sheriff Carter slipped his thumbs into his front pockets, the keys attached to his belt jingling. “What did you return?”
Dad and Sadie glanced at me expectantly. “Huh?” I replied, uncertain why the reason I went to the Rileys’ house mattered.
“You said you went to his house to return something,” the sheriff prompted. “In a hurricane. I’m wondering what could have been so important.”
“Am I being interrogated?” My blood pressure rose, color staining my cheeks.
“No, just being thorough with my report, Miss Quinn.”
All I wanted was to escape, and the familiar feeling of being suffocated made my palms sweat. I rubbed my hands on my thighs. “Is there anything else?” I asked, edge lacing my tone .
“I’m sure Arie is exhausted, Levi,” Dad said, using the sheriff’s first name as he made an excuse for me. Dad and the sheriff went to high school together. Small towns.
“Let me make you some boba,” Sadie suggested, scooting out of her chair, knowing boba was my favorite.
I gave her a grateful smile. My system needed the caffeine jolt. I sunk into the chair Sadie abandoned and glanced up at Levi. “I didn’t mean to waste your time, Sheriff. With the cell towers out, I wasn’t able to call home, or I would have.”
His radio went off again, and he waited until the voice on the other end stopped speaking before addressing me. “Sounds like you got yourself into a mess with that Riley boy. A bit of advice, Miss Quinn.”
I fucking hated when he called me that.
“Stay away from the Riley boys. They’re nothing but trouble.”
Well, I probably shouldn’t tell him how I’d most likely be spending the summer at their house. “Thanks for the warning, Sheriff,” I forced myself to say, pasting on the fakest smile I could muster.
It was pathetic, and I was sure he could see right through me.
I didn’t give a shit.
“I’ll see you to the door,” Dad said, his hands moving to the wheels of his chair.
Sheriff Carter tipped his head at me. “Glad to see you're safe. Saves me from doing a whole lot of paperwork.”
“Glad I could make your job easier,” I mumbled dryly.
N either Sadie nor my father pressed me after the sheriff left, but I sensed they wanted to. Eventually, they would have questions. For now, I took my tea into my room and picked up my phone.
“Shit,” I muttered, seeing the black screen. I plugged in the charger and headed for a shower instead, longing to smell like me again and not like the guy next door. The jerk tormented me enough, and regardless of how much my hormones enjoyed his scent, I needed to desensitize myself. And I needed to fucking clear my head.
My bathroom might be the size of Cole’s shower, but I loved every second under the spotty hot water and spent longer than usual scrubbing myself clean.
With my wet hair tied up in a towel, I plopped down on my bed, feeling more like me, and reached for my phone. “Finally,” I sighed when the screen lit up, and then the notifications came in. One after the other.
“Shit,” I mumbled, settling in to scroll through them all. I also needed to call the diner and let Ann know what happened.
Other than Dad, most of the texts were from Frankie.
Frankie:
Holy shit this storm is nasty. Text me when you get home.
Hello? Don’t tell me you’re still at work.
The first string of messages was all from right before I’d left to go to Cole’s. I hadn’t checked my phone before I left. As I kept reading, they quickly got more intense.
Frankie:
Bitch, text me back.
Okay, now you’re scaring me.
Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong?
It’s been two days, Arie. WTF. We never go this long without talking.
When I got to the end of her long trail of messages, sadness squeezed my throat. The idea she thought I deliberately wasn’t talking to her hurt. Skipping all other notifications, I immediately called her.
The phone rang, and with each ring, my worry spiked. Come on, pick up. She could still be sleeping, depending on how late of a night she had or if she’d been working at Club Eden. Frankie bartended, and it suited her.
“What the hell, bitch,” she answered the phone, her voice raspy as if I’d roused her from bed.
I dropped the phone on the pillow next to me and exhaled. “As my best friend, you should know that if I was pissed at you I would tell you to your face.”
“Then where have you been? Why did you ignore me?” Her voice came through the speaker clearer, less sleepy.
“You’re not going to believe this,” I said.
“Intrigued.” Through the phone, I heard her sheets rustle as she sh ifted. “Did you get kidnapped by a hot alien who took you to his ice planet and now your mates?”
“Fuck, Frankie. Stop reading so many smut books.” The towel on my head started to give me a headache, so I unraveled it, tossing the damp terry cloth to my bedroom floor.
“A girl can dream,” she said.
Leaning over the side of my bed, I opened my nightstand drawer and pulled out a brush. “And that makes me question your dreams. Who fantasizes about being abducted?”
“You’d be surprised. Try it sometime.”
“I’d rather not.” But then I thought about my two days shut in next door with Cole. He wasn’t an alien, but he did meet the hot quota. I almost thought about not telling Frankie because she would romanticize every second of my confinement.
But as my best friend, I couldn’t keep anything from her. If I didn’t tell her, I’d go crazy. I needed someone to tell me the deal Cole proposed was absurd, or that I’d be a fool to pass it up. Frankie wouldn’t hold back, and knowing my best friend, I had an inkling which way her vote would swing.
Rolling over, I sat up on my bed and began the tedious job of brushing out my hair. It had grown over the last few months and needed a trim. Plus, the dark-blue pieces could use a fresh color. “The whole forced proximity thing isn’t for me. I just spent two days locked up with Cole Riley.”
“Cole Riley?” she echoed loudly, suddenly alert and very awake. “Like your rich, fine as fuck neighbor?” I could picture her bolting straight up in bed, auburn hair messy and green eyes wide.
Christ, her voice projected. I hit the volume button on my phone a few times, turning it down. “The one and the same,” I mumbled, returning to work on the tangles of hair.
“Holy. Shit. Arie. Tell me everything. Don’t leave out a single detail, especially not how big his dick is.”
Unlike Dad and Sadie, Frankie’s first concern wasn’t my well-being. It was whether I got laid. “Jesus, Frankie. Why do you assume I slept with him?”
“Uh, why wouldn’t you take advantage of having Cole Riley alone?” she as ked as if there was no alternative, and maybe in her head, there wasn’t. “I can’t think of a single girl in Fallen Oaks who wouldn’t.”
“Hi, it’s me. I’m the problem; it’s me,” I said, quoting one of Frankie’s favorite songs.
“Arie, seriously.” I could all but see her roll her eyes. “Two days. You spent two days with him. If you didn’t have sex, tell me you at least swapped spit.”
Silence.
And that was all the confirmation she needed. “Thank you, God,” she sighed. “I was about to suggest you get your head checked, because if you didn’t at least kiss him, there would be something seriously wrong with you.”
The brush finally worked smoothly through my wet hair. “Not helping.”
“So how was it?”
“Traumatizing.”
“Are you saying his lips left a lasting impression?” she inquired, sounding too hopeful.
I rolled my eyes at Frankie’s ability to twist everything I said. It was a damn gift, but his lips had made an impact. I touched my mouth, recalling the feel of his mouth and the steel of his piercing offering a hint of coolness to the overwhelming heat of his kiss. But that wasn’t what I meant. “No, I was talking about being trapped in his house.”
“Oh, yeah, totally dreadful,” she agreed sarcastically. “I can’t imagine being locked in the most beautiful house in Fallen Oaks with a guy every girl in town has imagined naked.”
“You have such a way of putting things into perspective,” I grumbled, placing the brush on the table beside my bed.
“Skills. I can also tie the stem of a cherry into a knot with my tongue.”
I laughed. “You're ridiculous. I missed you.”
The playfulness left her tone. “Don’t ever go silent on me for two days again.”
This was probably not the best time to drop a bomb on her, but I had to get this burden off my chest. “I need to tell you something, but don’t freak out. ”
“I make no promises, but how the hell can you top what just happened?”
My damp hair soaked the back of the tee as I took a breath. “He asked me to stay with him for the summer.”
Her scream pierced my bedroom, and thankfully, I didn’t have my phone pressed to my ear, or it would be ringing right now.
“Frankie,” I scolded. “Get control of yourself.”
“Are you kidding me? What happened in that house?” She quickly rattled off questions as if she couldn’t get them out fast enough.
“It’s not what you think. He’s paying me.”
“Like an escort?” Confusion lined her words.
“I guess in a way. But no sex. I made that very clear.”
“I bet you did,” she mumbled. “Why would he need an escort?”
She couldn’t see me, but I shrugged regardless. “I don’t know. Something to do with his parents, I think.”
“Are you going to do it?”
“You know how much I could use the money.” Frankie was all too aware of my financial struggles. We shared every part of our lives, and in her case, she overshared some parts. For the last two years, we’d gone to the same college, Fallen Oaks Community College. We’d both graduate this summer with associate degrees. Me in psychology, and Frankie in digital art.
“If you’re asking me what I would do, I think you know the answer,” she said. “I’d do almost anything to get out of this town. Even sleep with Cole Riley, though I promise that would be no hardship. I’d do it free. If he wants you to be his fake girlfriend or whatever he has in mind, that’s an easy yes.”
“You’re right,” I sighed, staring at the pile of his clothes in the corner of my room.
“Why the hesitation? Are you afraid you’ll fall for him?” She joked, but that was exactly what I feared. “Holy shit. You like him.”
I groaned, dropping on the bed beside my phone, and stared at the ceiling. “I don’t know how I feel other than being in his presence puts me in a constant state of annoyance.”
She laughed. “Yeah, you like him.”
After Frankie and I hung up, I called Ann at the diner and explained what h appened. She was happy to hear my voice. Dad and Sadie weren’t the only ones worried about me. If being confined with Cole taught me anything, it was that I had more people in my life who cared about me. I might feel lonely, but I wasn’t alone.
I went through my remaining texts. The last one was from an unknown number. It didn’t take me long to figure out who it belonged to.
Cole:
I lied. I’m not a patient man, Killer.
My eyes rolled as I read the text again. I started to type a snarky reply but deleted it.
What I needed right now was to not think of Cole or his proposition. What I wanted was to spend some quality time with my dad and forget about the mountain of problems waiting for me outside this house.
Sadie went home while Dad and I vegged out on pizza, popcorn, and chips, played cards, and watched movies. I couldn’t remember the last time we had a day like this. Where I had not a care in the world. Where I wasn’t stressed or working on my feet all day or annoyed at how messy the house was.
But the carefree feeling only lasted until I saw the stack of bills still on the kitchen counter where I’d left them. With a heavy sigh, I thumbed through the papers, damn well knowing it would hamper my mood, and yet I couldn’t resist. It was a kind of torture you hated but loved, like having your feet tickled. One after another. All overdue. And many were months past due with bright red collection notices stamped on the front.
Life could be emotionally abusive.
And I’d suffered my fair share.
I couldn’t believe I was considering his proposal. Damn it. Damn him.
He offered me a temptation he knew I couldn’t turn down, and that got under my skin.
I stared at the unanswered text and sighed. My mind was made up, but Cole could wait another day or two for my answer. Call it his first lesson in patience. Why did he choose me? Maybe it was pity for the poor girl next door, and if that was the case, I’d hate him for it. I wasn’t a charity case, something I planned to make abundantly clear when I saw him next .
Taking the bills to my room, I set out to prioritize which were the most pressing. My stressless day was over. I couldn’t ignore my problems any longer.
I made one promise to myself…
I would not let my emotions get tangled. I would not fall for Cole Riley. I would protect my heart and treat him like every other rich asshole who came into my life. Heartless. Emotionless. Cold. Indifferent.
I didn’t know who I felt sorrier for. Me or Cole?
Would either of us survive the summer unscathed?